Not only is it consistently engaging and insanely fun throughout, but it manages to create a captivating world on top of that, dripping to the core in bizarre, fantastic lore. It draws upon the previous films just enough, taking what made them great and unique, and then turns it up to eleven, creating a brand new experience. Mad Max fans will find everything they loved about those movies present here, while those with no prior knowledge of the series will have absolutely no problem jumping right in. And jump in you should; this is an experience that no movie lover should miss–one that deserves to be seen on the big screen. Even if the character development was a bit thin, that’s what sequels are for, and I will eagerly be awaiting whatever next foray into the apocalypse that George Miller cooks up next, with the same bated breath that I found myself with through every last minute of Fury Road.
Westerns as a genre often get unfairly derided by those not intimately familiar with them. They were often the go-to genre for filmmakers in the early days of cinema, and as a result of the sheer number of them created, many bad Westerns were made. Now, though, it’s fairly rare to see Westerns on the silver screen, so when we do, a lot of love and care tend to go into them. Slow West is the thoughtful feature debut of director John Maclean, and a heartfelt entry into an oft-overlooked genre.
Slow West relies on a pretty basic setup. Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee), a young man from Scotland, comes to late 19th century America in search of his love Rose Ross (Caren Pistorius), who has fled her homeland with her father John (Rory McCann) after an incident causing the death of Jay’s nobleman father. He is picked up along the way by a bounty hunter called Silas (Michael Fassbender), with the promise of protection to his destination, and the secret of a $2000 bounty on Rose and her father. From there, it is a pretty straightforward Odyssey-esque journey, full of ups and downs, and numerous run-ins with interesting characters.
Slow west